Cowboy yarn triggers a wave of parodies

Whether or not Brokeback Mountain sweeps the board at tonight's Oscars, the story of two homosexual ranch hands has triggered a wave of spoof trailers on the web, such as Brokeback to the Future and Brokeback Goodfellas. But are they just harmless fun or insulting and homophobic?

Whether or not Brokeback Mountain sweeps the board at tonight's Oscars, the story of two homosexual ranch hands has triggered a wave of spoof trailers on the web, such as Brokeback to the Future, The Empire Breaks Back and Brokeback Goodfellas. Some have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times and have sparked a debate about whether they are harmless fun or insulting and homophobic.

All the mash-ups assume the same form. Gustavo Santaolalla's sexy theme music plays mournfully as portentous title cards from Ang Lee's tearjerker - 'It was a friendship that become a secret', 'A truth they couldn't deny' and the now-famous 'I wish I could quit you' reframe clips from other films to suggest vastly different plot lines. It seems to work every time, with films such as Heat, City Slickers, Titanic and Fight Club throwing up plenty of evocative lines for use by the satirists. In The Empire Breaks Back, for example, Luke Skywalker says: 'Something's happening. I want more and I know I shouldn't.'

The parodies have sparked both anger and praise in America. Most gay groups say they welcome the publicity - but Matt Foreman of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force said: 'It's gotten way over the top. It's a very sad movie. And yet it's spawned this entire industry of essentially anti-gay humour.'